Several voluntary safety program best practices would be worthy of inclusion in a beyond compliance program. NSTA encourages FMCSA to utilize the performance metrics of preventable accidents, non-preventable accidents and Department of Transportation reportable crashes when measuring all programs.

Indianapolis Public Schools is using Here Comes the Bus, which lets parents track their child’s bus, on a few buses before rolling it out district-wide. A few other districts in the state piloted the app last year.

Viewfinder is designed to help school transportation operators easily monitor day-to-day operations, providing access to updates on trips, field trips, vehicles, students and staff from any device, company officials said.

Software programs automate reporting, making it easier, faster and less costly, suppliers say. Districts have been able to save days’ worth of staff time and have more, reliable data with which to recoup much-needed funds.

SafeStop debuted its school bus and student tracking app, SafeStop, with parents of students at Campbell Hall, a school located in North Hollywood. The app is also available in New York, Florida and South Carolina.